Miyako Church in Iwate Prefecture was founded in 1909, but 82 years after its construction, the sanctuary was flooded to a depth of two meters by the tsunami resulting from the 2011 earthquake. The new sanctuary was built in October 2015, and the attached kindergarten, called “Hikari Yochien,” which previously had been located some distance from the church, was also reopened in December 2015 on the neighboring lot. This small church of ten members has an average worship attendance of about 15 persons. Kitamura Yoshikatsu is a church member who is working with children and their parents who are having difficulties.

by Kitamura Yoshikatsu, member Miyako Church, Ou District

I have worked for seven years as a member of the counseling support team at the Miyako City Board of Education’s Child Development Support Center in Iwate Prefecture. At the time of the earthquake, I was just getting ready to move on to my next destination after finishing counseling at a school near the seacoast. I had stopped by my house to check on it when I saw kindergarten children hurrying down the road in front of me. The tsunami soon followed, stopping just at my garden, but most of my hometown below me was destroyed. I went to help out at the evacuation center in the elementary school. There was quite a contrast between the adults, who were very preoccupied with the emergencies of the day, and the children, who seemed so surprisingly lively. I gradually began to understand, however, that during such times of emergency, children adapt themselves to that environment in ways like this. It has been four-and-a-half years since then, and I have learned from the counseling sessions how these children have lived during this time.

A mother living together with her son Ken (a third-year junior high school student) complained to me, “By afternoon, Ken becomes quite agitated at school and has to leave school early. As he can’t settle down, I end up having to leave my job early as well. But when he sees me, he gets even more hyper. I’m the only one, however, who can quiet him down, and so I’m now at the breaking point both mentally and physically.”

She eventually came to the realization that such behavior was related to the earthquake disaster and began to talk about that day. “I was not able to leave my workplace, and my son’s aunt was the one who came to pick him up at school. She carried him on her back as they slugged through the ooze to the nearby evacuation center. He spent the night there, and it was the next day before we could meet.” She then added, “He recently said as he clung to me, ‘I feel strange when I see the sea, and by evening I want to blow off steam.’” It was the first time she had told this story to another person. As we discussed this, we came to see that Ken was maturing both physically and mentally, and as he felt more settled in his environment, he was finally beginning to be able to express in words that frightening experience. It appears that he is gradually settling down and is able to feel comfortable in school again.

Another example is a mother who came to consult with me about her daughter, who was in the sixth grade. She said, “Yuki has recently been getting some of her energy back, but she has been absent from school now for three months.”As she spoke of her family, she said, “In the area where our family home is, the tsunami destroyed houses all the way up to our next-door neighbor’s house. My own mother was deeply hurt by some of the neighborhood people who had lost their homes, and she suddenly died a couple months later of overwork. A year later, my father also died from an illness he already had prior to the disaster. During this period, I, as the only child, had to take care of my parents and my father-in-law while running around this town of rubble for my job and household errands. I don’t really have clear memories, but I do recall hearing that Yuki had to go in to see the school nurse several times.” The mother also said that when she was young, before having her own family, she had had a stress-related illness and that her mother had said, “I can cure you by myself, without depending on doctors and medicine.”

“I lived a life practically smothered by my mother but did get better. As I look back,” she said, “there are many things that connect my daughter’s present situation to the situation following the disaster. After she stopped going to school, I thought that the best way to help her was to relate to her as my mother had related to me. But I sometimes feel unsure about that, so I suppose the reason I came to see you was to confirm whether that is the best way or not.” I patiently listened as she related the series of deaths that followed in the wake of the disaster and the various problems that came one after the other. I could see how these two were trying their best to protect themselves from the onslaught of those consecutive shocks.

The body and mind of a child changes rapidly. If adults fall into difficulties caused by something like an earthquake, children have a sense of impending crisis, because children seek security from adults and depend on them to provide it. When children can no longer endure a sense of impending crisis and begin to express this in various ways, they finally get the attention of the adults in their lives. I sensed that as Ken’s mother expressed her realization that his problems stemmed from the earthquake and tsunami disaster, a light came on in their relationship and a sense of security was reborn. Likewise, I also felt from Yuki’s mother that something like a warm spring breeze was blowing into the winter they had endured. To their children, sensing a “light” and a “warm spring breeze” from the important adults in their lives is life itself.

We humans support each other as we listen to and are listened to in our interpersonal relationships with each other. This is true not only in times of disaster, but in ordinary life as well. In this age of consumer goods and overflowing information, is it not still true that the way opens only through direct relationships?

On that day, Miyako Church was covered with mud. During these four-and-a-half years, our precious God has been listening to the cries and groans of our church and has led us in the decision to rebuild the church and the kindergarten Preschool and Kindergarten in a new location and next to each other. It is my prayer that the church and kindergarten will be more united in purpose and will be like a beacon of light and a warm spring breeze to the people who come into contact with us.(Tr. KY)